Oxide tunneling current in metal oxide silicon (MOS) field effect transistors (FET) is a non-negligible component of power consumption as gate oxides get thinner, and may in the future become the dominant leakage mechanism in sub-100 nm complementary MOS (CMOS) circuits. The gate current is dependent on various conditions for a single transistor and three main static regions of operation may be identified for a MOSFET. The amount of gate-leakage current differs; by several orders of magnitude from one region to another. Whether a transistor leaks significantly or not is also affected by its position in relation to other transistors within a CMOS circuit structure as this affects the voltage stress to which a particular device is subjected.
The three regions of operation are a function of applied bias if one only considers the parameters that affect the magnitude of gate current in a MOSFET as it operates in relation to other MOSFETs. Assuming that the supply voltage (Vdd) and the threshold voltage (Vt) are fixed, then a MOSFET in a static CMOS logic gate operates in one to the three regions, each with a significantly different amount of gate leakage.
The first region is called “strong inversion” and is the region where a MOSFET operates with the absolute value of the gate to source voltage (|VGS|) equal to Vdd. The gate-leakage current density for an N-channel FET (NFET) in strong inversion may be as high as 103 amperes square centimeter (A/cm2) for an oxide thickness of 1.5 nanometers (nm) at Vdd equal to 3 volts (V). For such a thin oxide, a more realistic value for Vdd is 1.2 V, in which case the gate-leakage current would more likely be 20 A/cm2.
The second region is called the “threshold” region where |VGS|=Vt. A MOSFET operating in the threshold region will leak significantly less than one operating in the strong inversion region, typically 3 to 6 orders of magnitude less depending on Vdd and the oxide thickness.
The third region is called the “Off” region where |VGS|=0.0 V. For an NFET operating in the Off region, there is no leakage if the drain voltage (Vd)=0.0 V. However, if Vd is equal to Vdd, then a small leakage current in the reverse direction (drain to gate) may be present due to gate-drain overlap area. Of course this current depends on transistor geometry and is typically 10 orders of magnitude less than the gate-leakage current in the strong inversion region.
The above three regions represent three distinct conditions or states for the channel of a MOSFET. Whether an “ON” transistor operates at strong inversion or at threshold is determined by its position inside a logic circuit structure as well as by the state of other transistors in the circuit structure.
Both NFETs and P-channel FETs (PFETs) in a logic circuit structure operate in one of the three regions described above. However, the main tunneling current in a PFET device in strong inversion is due to hole tunneling from the valence band and the main tunneling current in an NFET device in strong inversion is due to electron tunneling from the conduction band. Because of this, PFET gate currents are about 10 times smaller than equivalent sized NFET devices. This fact is important in assessing gate-leakage in a static CMOS circuit.
Since gate leakage currents are measured as current density, it follows that the gate-leakage current in a MOSFET is directly proportional to the gate area (width times length). Transistor sizing, therefore, has a direct impact on the amount of gate-leakage in a CMOS logic circuit.
As CMOS circuits become smaller, leakage current that results when voltage is applied to the gate of the field effect transistors becomes a significant portion of the power dissipation. Leakage power may become the limiting factor in how small devices may be manufactured. As devices are made smaller, the power supply voltage is correspondingly reduced. However, this may not achieve an adequate reduction in leakage power dissipation. Alternate techniques are being employed to reduce leakage power. One popular technique is to use power-gating to isolate the power supply voltage in groups of circuits at controlled times. These circuits are sometimes referred to as being part of a power-gated domain. Other circuits may be evaluating a logic function and may not be in a power-gated domain. Interfacing between circuits in a power-gated domain and circuits in a non-power-gated domain may prove difficult. The state of an output from a power-gated domain may be uncertain during the time period of power-gating. While the benefits of power-gating are known, there is no consensus on strategies to preserve logic states of outputs in the power-gated domains. Since power-gated domains may be variable, the method of preserving output logic states from circuits in a power-gated domain are controlled by the power-gating control signals themselves.
The current drive capability of a CMOS buffer depends on the channel size of devices used to drive outputs or to drive many other logic gate inputs. Therefore, one would expect the large devices to exhibit large gate-leakage current when the technology has gate oxides that are very thin. Likewise, logic regions with a high number of logic gates may exhibit a large gate-leakage current due to the large number of devices that are in strong inversion at any one static time (between clock transitions). Logic regions with a high number of logic gates may employ power supply gating whereby the power to the logic devices are decoupled by the action MOSFETs, PFETs for the positive power supply voltage and NFETs for the negative power supply voltage. These regions where power supply gating is employed is sometimes referred to as “cuttable” regions. When a cuttable region is interfaced with a non-cuttable region, then logic states at the interface outputs may become indeterminate when power is decoupled.
There is, therefore, a need for a circuit design for low leakage circuits that enables circuitry to be selectively coupled to the power supply rails to reduce gate leakage current.